The Russian Five

Joshua Riehl's 2018 documentary tells the story of five Russian hockey players who left the Soviet Union at the end of the eighties and joined the Detroit Red Wings. The club drafted them in low rounds and used complicated means to get them out of the country, which is the documentary's most interesting stretch. Bringing the five together on one team produced a style unusual in North American hockey: the pass-heavy system of the Soviet school. The documentary explains that tactical difference clearly. The second half is given to the car accident that ended Vladimir Konstantinov's career. Here the film shifts into an emotional register and runs long at times. Even so it shows the connection between the end of the Cold War and sport in concrete terms. Who it's for: those interested in ice hockey and sports history. Who it's not for: viewers new to the subject; the documentary partly assumes knowledge of hockey and covers the records in detail.